The Core Knowledge Blog

Iowa teachers can no longer ask students to pay for field trips or other activities during the school day.   The Iowa Department of Education has ruled the practice is not allowed under Iowa law.

“In February, the Ames School District asked the state for clarification regarding the legality of 17 various fees charged by the district, such as student parking stickers, yearbooks, museum admission during field trips and musical instrument rental,” the Iowa Hawk Eye reports.   When field trips are part of a class or instruction, the fees fall under tuition and thus are not an allowable fee.  Furthermore, the law says if the field trip is not related to what’s going on in the classroom, it should not take place during one of the school’s 180 days of instruction.

PTOs can still raise money for trips.  Still, this does present a small quandary.  As a teacher, I tended to observe higher levels of engagement and behavior when my 5th graders had to contribute a token sum toward a field trip.  Freebies were often free-for-alls.